If you use outdated platforms or manual processes to manage your work orders, odds are you’re running into the same problems that turn a good day into one that’s filled with frustrating chaos. The challenges that come with traditional, paper-based work order processes are extensive as conventional systems are laden with risk, higher costs, and poor visibility.
Surprisingly, a significant percentage of buyers at companies involved in many industries from construction to manufacturing are still using old paper systems, but work order software can save time and wasted labor while resolving many or all of the common problems with issuing work orders.
Finding the Right Contractors
Managers not only have to make important decisions about what has to be done, but they also have to find someone to perform the work, which can be a huge challenge. In most cases, there are countless service providers to choose from, but not all of them will be available when needed or able to perform a particular task. It can take exorbitant amounts of time searching through the long list of contractors, trying to compare schedules, capabilities, accreditations, and more. With the right work order software, that job will be much easier and take significantly less time. Work order software can include directories of contractors that will help managers find, evaluate, and hire the best as well as ensuring compliance, such as meeting the correct license and insurance requirements.
Disorganization
One of the key factors in managing work orders is keeping them easily accessible and well organized as managers frequently need to pull information from previous work orders. That can be a challenge when there is a big work order volume, typical with large equipment inventories and multiple locations. With the right software, it can help organize current and past work orders so that they can be easily retrieved.
Missing Preventative Maintenance
Successful work order management depends on obtaining insights through maintaining real-time visibility of assets. Preventing maintenance can include work orders when requirements are beyond the skills of an in-house team. Without the ability to recognize those activities as part of essential preventative maintenance, it can lead to assumptions and problems in the future. If managers don’t have access to preventative maintenance capability in a work order management system, it raises the odds that recurring work that needs to be done is missed. That can lead to poor performance, more expensive repairs in the future, and even negatively impact customer experiences.
With work order software, managers can not only keep preventative maintenance plans organized, they can automatically input recurring planned work more efficiently to reduce the chance that it’s forgotten. Multiple locations and equipment can be maintained properly.
Lack of Visibility
Work order management means overseeing work orders through completion. Contractors must be monitored while performing tasks. To do that, managers often have to travel to various locations to ensure contractors are not only there and working, but their work is done at a satisfactory level. With work order software, there are dashboards that include strategic, operational, and financial visualization. That provides visibility into service data across locations, trades, and contractors.